From Trump tweets to Pentagon leaks, infighting leaves US Middle East policy in tatters

US Middle East policy was plunged into fresh chaos on Monday following a pair of confusing, menacing tweets on Syria and Turkey by Donald Trump and a string of leaks from State Department and Pentagon officials targeting the hardline White House national security adviser John Bolton over Iran. In a pair of Sunday afternoon tweets, Trump threatened to “devastate Turkey economically” if it were to attack Syria’s Kurds, advocated the creation of a 20-mile buffer zone along the Syrian-Turkish border, and seemed to imply that Russia, Iran and the Damascus regime of Bashar al-Assad will take up the anti-Isis fight as the US withdraws troops from northern Syria.